Before Mark Cuban owned a 24,000-square-foot mansion so massive he forgot parts of it existed, he was broke, living with five roommates, and cruising around in a junker car, burning gas just to ogle "big houses." That habit wasn't just entertainment—it was fuel.
"I would just ride around all day looking at the big houses, listening to Zig Ziglar on motivational tapes that I bought for half price at Half Price Books," Cuban told Money magazine in a 2017 interview. His inspiration? A little-known 1988 book called Cashing In on the American Dream: How to Retire by the Age of 35 by Paul Terhorst.
